BEIJING, Nov. 6 (UPI) — Beijing reacted strongly against the U.S. decision to slap preliminary anti-dumping duties of up to 99 percent on some Chinese oil pipe imports.

Thursday’s decision by the U.S. Commerce Department, the latest in the two countries’ bilateral trade disputes, comes as President Barack Obama prepares for his first presidential visit to China this month. Earlier disputes relate to tires, automotive parts and chickens.

The official Xinhua news agency called the oil pipe duties the biggest U.S. trade action against China, which resulted after the Commerce Department’s preliminary finding that Chinese exporters had sold the tubular goods in the United States “at prices ranging from zero to 99.14 percent less than normal value.”

U.S. imports of the China-made pipes have grown 203 percent since 2006, totaling $2.6 billion last year. The Commerce Department will make its final determination of anti-dumping and countervailing duties next year.

“Beijing has resolutely opposed any protectionist trade moves by the United States, one of China’s biggest trade partners, claiming protectionism will eventually hurt bilateral trade, and cripple a sluggish global economic recovery from a worst recession since the Great Depression,” People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece, said.

The report said the Obama administration since taking office in January has initiated about a dozen anti-dumping or countervailing duty investigations against Chinese products “in response to petitions filed by industry and union groups” whose support the administration needs.